Whānau elated Milner-Skudder to debut for ABs

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Nehe Milner-Skudder will debut for the All Blacks on the right wing on Saturday, it's the biggest achievement in his short rugby career thus far.

Today she is the happiest mother in New Zealand. Heneriata Milner says, “I am very excited and can feel the spirit of my ancestors within me.”

Her son, Nehe Milner-Skudder has been named to start for the All Blacks.

She says, “I've received a lot of messages and texts and haven't been able to reply to all of them."

Like her son, since the announcement mum Milner has been a star.

She says, “I was at the gym and when I went back to my room I checked my phone and a lot of people were congratulating me about the announcement on TV. I missed it and haven't seen it yet. I'll have to go watch it on YouTube.”

He has had a stellar 12 months carving up for the Turbos and the Hurricanes and mum says he has always played with confidence, even playing with men in the New Zealand open men's touch team at the age of 16.

Milner says, “Yes, he's very confident and was confident enough to boss around men a lot older than him while playing for that side.”

Through this confidence, he has had the opportunity to play around the country and the world and mum has not missed a single game.

She says, “There's nothing more important than me going to his games. I wasn't able to make one of his Super 15 matches in South Africa and luckily enough for me, he didn't play that game.”

On Saturday morning, Milner will fly out to Sydney to watch her son wear the black jersey for the first time.